Cartridge-magazine



c. A. NELSON.

CARTRIDGE MAGAZINE. APPLICATION FILED IAN.2.1919.

1,365,845. I 4 Patented Jan. 18, 1921.

T OFFECE.

CHARLES A. NELSON, on UTICA, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR T SAVAGE ARMS CORPORA- TION, or UTIGA, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION or DELAWARE.

CARTRIDGE-MAGAZINE.

Application filed. January 2, 1919.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CHAnLns A. NnLsoN, United States citizen, residing in Utica,

- New York, have invented the following-described Improvements in Cartridge-Magazines.

The invention provides a cartridge magazine of the circular type used in Lewis machine guns adapted to hold a'large number of cartridges and having a maximum of rigidity and durability with a minimum weight and complication of structure and the invention consists in the organization and relative arrangement of the several component parts and in certain incidental features as herein below more fully explained and pointed out in the claims...

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the preferred form of the invention Figure 1 is a radial section of a portion of a magazine,

Fig. 2 a bottom plan view thereof,

Fig. 3 a partial top plan with parts broken away,

Fig. 4 a section on line IV-IV of Fig. 1.

The magazine comprises a centerblock or core 1 representing the stationary base by which the magazine is supported on the machine gun and a surrounding concentric cylindrical and open-bottomed shell or casing 2 adapted to be rotated upon the core by the automatic action of the arm. The core is formed with an axial cavity to fit the maga zine carrier on the gun and the cavity contains the latch 8 which looks the core nonrotatably to the carrier and which can be opened or released by the thumb piece in accordance with the usual design of these devices. The core is circuniferentially grooved with a deep channel 1 to receive the bullet ends of the cartridges and this channel extends in a generally helical path from the bottom to the top of the core, being by preference formed so that the greater part of each spire of the helix is without pitch, this being also in accordance with customary design.

The casing is pressed or drawn of light gage sheet-steel with a circular opening in its top wall, the edge portion. of which opening is reinforced with a relatively heavy ring 5 riveted thereto by a series of rivets 6. This reinforced edge forms the journal for the rotary casing being for this purpose confined in an annular channel or Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 18, 1921.

Serial No. 269,234.

journal seat formed between the upper part of the core 1 and the flange 7 of a circular top plate 8 secured thereto. The same top plate also forms a housing for the bolt 9 which carries the latch 3 with its spring 10 and the said bolt is so arranged in the top plate'that it is normally urged by its spring toward the journal or edge of the casing which is formed'with notches 11 so that the casing is thereby locked against rotation until the bolt is withdrawn above described. The bases of the cartridge are carried by the casing and their bullet ends by the groove 1 in the core so that rotation of the casing advances them through said groove as will be understood by those familiar with this type of magazine.

Adjacent and surrounding the journal-- edge of the casing, the top wall of the latter is formed with an upstanding annular boss 12 which overlies the outer portion of the reinforcing ring 5 and besides serving to stiffen the top wall, also provides a space beneath to accommodate the riveted heads of the series of guide-posts 13 which are rigidly mounted on the ring. From a point closely adjacent to this annular boss the casing top wall is ribbed or corrugated in radial planes and the corrugations 18 extend around the corner formed by the top and side walls of the 'casing and thence downwardly to the lower edge of the side wall. Such corrugations formed at the corner stiflen the side wall and assist in preserving it in cylindrical form. Thin key-plates 14 which are secured to the crowns of the longitudinal corrugations on the inner side of the casing wall also con' tribute astilfening effect. These plates are slightly wider than their corrugations so that their opposite vertical edges overhang the intermediate interior corrugationgrooves, thereby forming vertical guideways adapted to receive and guide the rim-grooved bases of the contained cartridges, and at their upper ends they are curved or otherwise specially shaped to fit and form a bearing upon the interior crowns of the top wall corrugations at the corner, as indicated at 14* in Fig. 41. Their manner of attachment to the casing is subject to variation but they are preferably secured thereto by one or two pointed tabs 15 punched out of them and clenched through corresponding slots in the casing wall and they are additionally fastened in place by the substantial rivets 16 near the lower rim of the casing. These same rivets also form the attachment for a series of oblique rim braces 17 extendingfrom the rim to the central reinforced part of the casing top wall or to the guide ring 5 and preferably directly to the latter to which they are attached by means of the riveted guide-posts thereon. The bracers are best formed of channel tubing flattened and appropriately bent at their ends to receive the rivets and the riveted ends of the posts 13 respectively. It will be apparent that the bracers occupy positions in the radial planes of the key-plates and guideposts and hence are located between the vertical spaces in which the cartridges are held and guided.

The several features above described cooperate in maintaining a permanently cylindrical contour for the rotary casing espe cially near its lower rim which is most liable to distortion in use but which requires most particularly to be accurately related to the feed pawl of the rotating mechanism of the gun and thereby they provide for the manufacture of the casing out of thinner and hence lighter sheet metal than would otherwise be possible and the stiffening means themselves do not add appreciable weight in proportion to the degree of rigidity and durability produced by them.

Claims:

1. In a magazine having a central cartridge-guiding core, a rotary open-bottomed cartridge-guiding casing on the core comprising a radially corrugated top wall, a longitudinally corrugated cylindrical side wall and oblique rim bracers occupying radial planes within the casing and connectingthe rim thereof to the central part of said corrugated top wall.

2. In a magazine having a central cartridge-guiding core, a rotary cartridge-guiding casing mounted thereon, and having radially disposed corrugations extended longitudinally along the side wall of the casing and radially along the top wall and forming longitudinal cartridge receiving grooves on the interior of the side wall and radial rim bracers between the said grooves.

3. In a magazine having a central cartridge-guiding core, a rotary open-bottomed cartridge-guiding casing on the core having a reinforced central opening in its top wall forming the journal of the casing on the core and a series of oblique bracers extending from said central reinforced portion to the rim of the casing.

ll. In a magazine having a central cartridge-guiding core, a rotary open-bottomed cartridgeguiding casing on the core formed of thin sheet-metal with a central opening in its top wall, a ring reinforcing the edge of said opening and a series of oblique bracers extending from the ring to' the rim of the caslng.

5. In a magazine having a central cartridge-guiding core, a rotary open-bottomed cartridge-gin ding casing on the core, having a ring secured adjacent to its journal on the core, a series of guide-posts on the ring and rim bracers secured to the ring by the guideposts.

6. In a magazine having a central core, a rotary open-bottomed cartridge-guiding casing having a central opening in its top wall journaled on the core and provided with cartridge-guiding grooves in its peripheral wall, key plates secured to said wall adjacent to the grooves and rim bracers secured. to said wall by the same means that secures the key plates thereto.

7. In a magazine having a central. core, a rotary cartridge-guiding casing on the core provided with cartridge-guiding grooves in its peripheral wall, key plates on said wall between the grooves therein and clenched tab-and-slot connections between the said plates and wall.

8. In a magazine of the kind described a thin sheet-metal casing and key-plates forming cartridge-guiding grooves disposed around its circumference, said key-plates being shaped to fit and form bearings on the casing top-wall to stiffen the corner between the top-wall and the circumferential side wall.

9. In a magazine of the kind described, a thin sheet-metal casing having a centrally reinforced top wall and a cylindrical side wall, devices forming cartridge-guiding grooves on the side wall having a bearing on the top wall and bracing members extending from the ends of said devices to the reinforced part of the top wall.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification.

CHARLES A. NELSON. 

